THE REPUBLICANS CROSS THE RUBICON ~ Paul Craig Roberts

Does anyone remember when National Public Radio was an independent voice?
During the 1980s NPR was continually on the case of the Reagan administration. NPR certainly had a Democratic slant, and a lot of its reporting about the Reagan administration was one-sided. Yet, NPR was an independent voice, and it sometimes got things correct.
In the 21st century that voice has disappeared, which was the intention of the George W. Bush regime. Bush put a Republican woman in charge who made it clear to NPR producers and show hosts that the federal part of their funding was at risk.
Money often over-rules principle, and when corporations added their really big money NPR collapsed. Today the local stations still pretend to be funded by listeners, but if you have noticed, as I have, there are now a large number of corporate advertisements, disguised in the traditional terms “with support from . . .” If you are not listening to classical music, you are listening to corporate advertisements.
Today the entire “mainstream media” is closed to truth-tellers. The US media is Washington’s propaganda ministry. The US media has only one function–to lie for Washington.

What reminded me of NPR’s surrender was NPR’s August 31 report with its two regular talking voice political pundits discussing the Republican Convention and Romney’s speech. After witnessing the Republicans at their nominating convention at Tampa violate all their own rules and ride roughshod over the Ron Paul delegates, one expected some discussion of the Republican Party’s refusal to allow Ron Paul to be placed in nomination or his delegate account to be announced.
The operative question was obvious: How can the American people trust the Republicans with the awesome power of the executive branch when the Republican Party just finished demonstrating for all to see its Stalinist qualities by crushing the anti-war, anti-police state wing of its party?

National Reconnaissance Office plans even larger, more advanced spy satellite array

By Madison Ruppert: The United States’ National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is the shadowy government agency tasked with maintaining and operating a massive system of spy satellites in orbit around the Earth and conducting surveillance of various targets around the globe.
This is just one of the many surveillance apparatuses which surround us in the United States, quickly turning what was once a free nation into an Orwellian surveillance state.
Keep in mind; this is the same NRO which has been accused of illegally spying on Americans (along with the National Security Agency (NSA)) and which is referred to by some as, “One of the most secretive agencies in the federal government.”
In a new budget document for this fiscal year, obtained via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on August 22, 2012 by Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), we learn of some of the many technologies employed by the NRO along with those they seek to acquire and develop in the near future.
Unfortunately, very little of the document is actually available to read since major sections of the budget justification are redacted in their entirety or so heavily redacted that no relevant information can be gleaned from them.
“Allowing for the fact that perhaps 90% of the 450 page budget document remains classified, it is still possible to glean at least fragmentary insight into the current state of the NRO,” wrote Aftergood for the FAS blog Secrecy News.
The NRO has been quite a shadowy agency since it was started in 1961 with Wired’s Danger Room writing that the NRO “has maintained round-the-clock orbital surveillance with a classified arsenal of satellites, reportedly including Keyhole camera-sats, downward-scanning Lacrosse space radars and signals intelligence spacecraft with giant arrays for sucking up communications from Earth.”

Roll on 2021-22? The Resilience and Fragility of the Status Quo - Charles Hugh Smith

The apparent resilience of the Status Quo masks its fundamental fragility.
Longtime correspondent K.B. recently posed a question that is on many minds, including mine.

For the last 5 years, I have been watching the slow train wreck that is our economy. We have been preparing by not spending extravagantly, not being home owners, and more or less being mobile. However, the “perception management” as you call it of the markets and the general economy today doesn’t seem to have an end. I have been waiting so long for the wheels to fall off, a black swan event, or generally to see capitalism take its toll on the existing markets, that I am starting to believe that maybe Mises was wrong. Maybe, in addition to helicopters, Ben does have the magic touch. In short, I am exasperated at the gullibility of the remaining market participants (or perhaps their culpability) and I’m starting to think that the great correction isn’t coming. Because of that, I’d like to know what your thoughts are on how long the perception management can last. Do you have a notion as to what the key element will be that forces the train off the tracks? Other than silly stuff like logic and simple mathematics, what keeps you convinced of the eventual outcome of our predicament? This isn’t about trading, but more about fatigue.

When I read Status Quo magazines like The Economist or BusinessWeek that exude an oily sheen of permanence, they always make me wonder: how much longer can the patched-together Status Quo continue on more or less as is?

War, Whores and Welfare: Jack-Booted Statists in Libertarian Clothing - Max Kaiser with Karl Denninger

Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss boom boom sticks and squeaky wheels and ask whether spending on the military is more libertarian than spending on teaching prostitutes to drink responsibly. And they envision a post leveraged buyout America in which we open up Fort Knox and find only a printer. In the second half of the show, Max Keiser talks to Karl Denninger of Market-Ticker.org and the Florida Libertarian Party about jack-booted statists in libertarian clothing. Source

Syrian Girl, "Arabs Are Not Just Arabs"

The Middle East and the Arabic speaking world is full of diversity - Syrian Girl gives a brief intro on some of its shades ... Source

Mario Draghi Reprises Hank Paulson: Demands Full Monetization Authority Or Else Threatens With End Of Euro + Did The Great Financial Crisis Start With The End Of The Gold Standard? - Tyler Durden

Submitted by Tyler Durden: Yesterday's "leak" of Draghi's comments that it is not monetization if just the tip only bonds with a maturity of 3 years or less are monetized, aka, legitimate monetization does not cause inflation was so horribly handled that the ECB huffed and puffed in a desperate attempt to appear angry, even though it was absolutely delighted that it had even more ammo in its war against Germany. Today, the leakage continues only this time nobody cares that Draghi's desperation is hitting the headlines left and right. As a result, Draghi literally pulled a carbon copy of Hank Paulson, and while he did not have a three page term sheet in hand, threatened that the Euro would end unless he was allowed to monetize short-term bonds. Here's looking at your Germany. From Bloomberg: "European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said the bank’s primary mandate compels it to intervene in bond markets to wrest back control of interest rates and ensure the euro’s survival. Mounting his strongest case yet for ECB bond purchases, Draghi told lawmakers in a closed-door session at the European Parliament in Brussels yesterday that the bank has lost control of borrowing costs in the 17-nation monetary union."

Bloomberg continues: "We cannot pursue price stability now with a fragmented euro area because changes in interest rates affect only one country, or two countries at most,” Draghi said. “They have no importance whatsoever in the rest of the euro area.” ECB bond purchases are therefore “a way to comply with our primary mandate,” he said, adding: “Frankly, all this also has to do very much with the continuing existence of the euro.” The reason he added the last part is because as Asmussen has hinted, the ECB believes it is in its mandate to do everything, including monetize whatever it needs, to prevent the market from dumping bonds. Of course, the reality is that Draghi has cause and effect completely inverse, and the only reason the EUR is plunging, as are peripheral bonds is because the local governments are doing nothing to fix their miserable fiscal reality, and will continue to do so as long as the ECB continues to intervene and give the impression that things are better than they really are.

HUNT RESHUFFLED FOR THE GOOD OF CAMERON’S HEALTH - The Slog

Why Cameron backed away from a toxic Jeremy Hunt at Culture

Shocking series of scandals surrounding the Groucho Club.

Two years ago, during the 2009-10 period, David Cameron took a keen interest in a Tory taskforce invited to produce a special report, UK Tourism in a Competitive World.
Part of his motivation for doing so was probably that the Conservative Leader always has a nose for big money. And John Henry James Lewis, Chairman of the infamous Groucho Club in London’s Dean Street, has for some years been the major bankroller of former Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt MP.
Mr Hunt is now the new Secretary of State for Health. He will be bringing a great deal of baggage with him for his stay in hospital.
Misleadingly, our Jeremy refers to Lewis in his interests submission as ‘Mr John Lewis of Dorset’. It is misleading both by geography and understatement: Lewis is a multimillionaire director of some 78 companies…he is based largely in London, has an an entry in Debretts, and is widely known in media circles. During 2009, Jeremy Hunt declared in his interests a meal at the Groucho Club….at which Mr Lewis coughed for the bill, a trifling £1430.
John  Henry James Lewis has a variety of media interests. He is also the man who bankrolled Hunt’s ‘fact-finding’ visit to New York in 2009 as Shadow Culture Minister to the tune of £4,000. Hunt’s visit there lists four media companies he visited. Three of them are owned by Newscorp. There are over 45,000 media concerns listed in New York. When asked by Leveson if he had spoken to James Murdoch about the BSkyB takeover, Mr Hunt replied that he had not “to the best of my recollection”. Should a man whose memory span doesn’t stretch to three years on such a central topic be a legislator and Cabinet minister? Well, today Dodger Dave decided.
But the truth is that Cameron has dumped Hunt from Culture because he has more than enough toxic isotopes in that area as it is. And be in no doubt, JHJ Lewis’s potential for toxicity is outstanding.
During the last two years, a battery of allegations has been thrown at the Groucho Club in general and its management in particular. In trying to sue just one of the accusers, Mr Lewis lost a libel case against one brave litigant who sued the club under the data protection act. The Groucho was awarded an insulting £225 costs after shelling out a legal cost estimated to be in the region of £2.5m. The owners are now trying very hard to sell their tarnished asset. But the grubby tarnish goes well beyond just one case.
It involves secret surveillance of Groucho members. The use of the Groucho’s website by paedophiles. Consumption and supply of cocaine. Another massive Met Police cover-up followed by an IPCC whitewash. Gifts to Mr Hunt from other members of the Lewis family. And a network of wealthy liars scheming to ensure that their various plots would remain uncovered.

UK contacts with Syria rebels confirmed

British Foreign Secretary William Hague has revealed that his government authorized and facilitated “limited contacts” between the UK agents and representatives of the so-called Free Syrian Army.

The contacts were part of a conspiracy hatched by Britain’s spying apparatus and the U.S. spying agencies to topple the popular government of President Bashar al-Assad.
“The UK’s own Special Representative to the Syrian Opposition continues to meet opposition groups in the region,” Hague said in a statement to the country’s House of Commons on Monday.

The so-called Free Syrian Army is a rebel group that has taken arms against the government of President Assad. The terrorist group, whose elements are mainly consisting of foreign mercenaries and outlaws within Syria, declared its existence on 29 July 2011. The group hijacked the peaceful movement of the Syrian nation, whose main objective was democracy and freedom of speech. The Syrian government responded to the call made by peaceful demonstrators by implementing a raft of reforms which included formation of new political parties and a new Constitution. But, terror groups led and funded by foreign spying agencies waged a civil war against the government which has resulted in the death of hundreds of security personnel and civilians across Syria.

Earlier in August, a senior rebel admitted that British intelligence was playing a covert role in the civil war by providing information about the movement of Syrian armed forces to terrorists fighting the Syrian government.
“British intelligence is observing things closely from Cyprus. It's very useful because they find out a great deal,” the senior rebel said.

TSA liquid testing inside terminal at Columbus OH Airport + TSA Caught In Huge Power Grab! - Alex Jones

By danno02: While waiting in the Columbus OH airport for our flight to Oakland, I couldnt help but notice the two TSA women that were "testing" any and all liquids that people had in their hands. Now remember that this is inside the terminal, well beyond the security check and purchased inside the terminal...just people waiting to get on the plane. My wife and son came back from a coffee shop just around the corner, then we were approached. I asked them what they were doing. One of the TSA ladies said that they were checking for explosive chemicals (as we are drinking them).I said "really..inside the terminal? You have got to be kidding me". I asked them if they wanted to swab us all. She responded with something like, yes sometimes we need to do that. I then asked if she wanted a urin sample...none the less, the TSA is way out of control. I understand that my ranting to one of these $11.00 per hour TSA goons probably does nothing, but you have to say something. Whats next...perhaps the TSA will come to your home prior to your drive to the airport? The police state of the US is OUT OF CONTROL!

Apple awarded patent for location-based remote disabling of mobile devices

By Madison Ruppert: Last week Apple was awarded a troubling patent, originally filed in June of 2008, which would enable a feature many users likely wouldn’t want: the remote disabling of the camera on one of Apple’s many devices via infrared signal.
Allowing for the cameras on cell phones to be remotely disabled could, in my opinion, be quite dangerous since it very well might mean that crimes could go unpunished due to the lack of video evidence which might otherwise be collected.
With reports of police attempting to buy videos from witnesses who captured a quite disturbing incident involving officers, reports of police forcibly seizing the cell phone of a witness and even reports of police allegedly confiscating the cell phone of a witness and destroying evidence of police brutality, one can imagine who would benefit from such a feature.
The patent, number 8,254,902, is entitled, “Apparatus and methods for enforcement of policies upon a wireless device” and it outlines a broad range of ways this technology could be applied for so-called “policy enforcement.”
Some of the example usages outlined in the abstract are, “to disable noise and/or light emanating from wireless devices (such as at a movie theater), for preventing wireless devices from communicating with other wireless devices (such as in academic settings), and for forcing certain electronic devices to enter “sleep mode” when entering a sensitive area.”

Another Billionaire’s Bet on Inflation – Frank Giustra on 'Bad etiquette'

By Tommy Humphreys: We had the opportunity to sit down with Frank Giustra last week, the lion behind Lionsgate Films, and an early architect of countless resource companies—most notably Wheaton River Minerals (now known as the $33B Goldcorp, which spun out the $12B Silver Wheaton), Petro Rubiales (now the $7B Pacific Rubiales), and Urasia Energy.
By all accounts Giustra is brilliant, connected and wealthy. He made headlines in 2007 by pledging over $100 million and half of his future earnings to establish a charitable foundation with President Clinton. Outside of philanthropy however, Giustra has been reluctant to draw attention to himself, and rarely speaks publicly about investing.
In 2002 however, he moved heavily into gold and published, “A Tarnished Dollar Will Put the Shine on Gold”, when it was trading under $300 an ounce. Ten years later and with gold now priced over $1600/oz., it still occupies the largest percentage of his investment portfolio, and his views remain the same.
In discussing gold during the interview he said, “I believe it’s going a lot higher…

Did the people ever have a say in money/banking? - SilverFuturist